Thanksgiving

I hope that all my friends and family were able to have a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday!! It has not really felt much like the fall or November here so definetly did not feel like Thanksgiving when I woke up on Thursday but I ended up having a really great day. The group of trainees rallied together and organized an amazing and fairly authentic meal. Classes ended early so we had time to shop, cook, and relax a bit. A friend and I were put in charge of making the stuffing and were pretty proud of our results. It tasted just like home to me even though we used a stove and couldnt find celery at the market!

We met the chief of Ouahigouya when we first arrived here and he gave us a sheep that we fondly named Turkey. He was fattened up over the last month and slaughtered for our enjoyment. The big meat eaters in our group were worried about not having a real turkey since we heard the birds you get here are super expensive and not very tasty. The ambassador came to our rescue though and donated a real, Butterball turkey. It sounds like a big order had been shipped over for embassy staff and she was kind enough to share one with us. She also gave us several pumpkin pies and canned cranberries. I didnt think I would ever be able to have my favorite Thanksgiving side right out of the can but it happened even in the middle of Burkina Faso!!!

Other amazing side dishes included mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, salad, deviled eggs, bread, green beans, a pumpking/sweet potato dish with oatmeal topping and more that I cant remember. Its sad but two of my favorite things that we had arent even traditional--brownies and M and Ms. One of the PC staff members donated brownie mix and somebody else gave the M and Ms. They were so good and reminders of home!! I guess I have a little bit of a chocolate addiction! I ate way too much food but kept shoveling it in. It was definetly the most satisfying meal I have had in the last six weeks and probably the best tasting Thanksgiving meal ever just because I hadnt had any home-cooked American food since I left. My mom did cook a Thanksgiving meal in August since I would be missing out so I had all the good stuff once this year already. There was something about the teamwork and coming together while in Burkina that made ours so delicious and special!!

No big shopping for me yesterday since we had class but I did hit up the market today and bought pagnes--crazy African print fabric. I am going to get a fantastic outfit made for our swearing in ceremony in three weeks. Training is now coming to a close with two more weeks at our host families followed by ten days in Ouahigouya before moving to our sites. I guess that means Christmas is coming soon as well. I think no Christmas trees or mistletoe this year but hopefully we will be able to pull together another special celebration before moving in separate directions throughout Burkina!

Odds and Ends

This is going to be a disjointed post but I havent blogged in a while and am quickly running out of time on the internet.

My birthday was a week and a half ago and turned out to be pretty disappointing. I was in village so couldnt really celebrate or even spoil myself with expensive junk food from the the small grocery store in the city. Hopefully next year when I turn the big quarter century I will be able to plan a big fete or something!! I did really appreciate all of the cards from friends and family! I feel so removed from life in the US that its wonderful to hear from you. Thanks!!

My family raises animals as I have said before and it appears that it is birthing time as we have had lots of baby goats and sheep including a cute one born on my birthday. I named him Kirstin which my family though was super funny since they dont name animals ever and this one happened to be a boy!

The Harmattan began early this year around my birthday. Usually this doesnt come until December or January but like weather patterns everywhere else, its all screwed up here too. It is very dry and dusty which I think led to me becoming sick last week. I got a sinus infection and cold so was feeling really under the weather. It was my first time sick here though so I have been very lucky compared to many of my fellow trainees that have suffered through lots of diarrhea already. I am better now except for a runny nose and sore throat that I think it more from the dry weather than anything else.

I visited a current volunteer this weekend that lives in a village three km from my village. It was fun to see how she lived. I also was able to visit the site of one of my current trainees since he was nearby. It was exciting to see the house he will be moving into soon. I cannot wait to see my own house and community. One more month to go!!

I wanted to write about Thanksgiving plans but will have to wait to tell you what actual occurs. I want to say thanks for all the great friends and family that have supported me in this adventure and hope you have a great day with your friends and family at home!!

Site Announcement

Yesterday was a big day for the stagiares in Burkina...we got your sites where we will be living for the next two years! They made it into a big deal and had a huge map on the wall with all the villages. I forgot my camera but hopefully I can get a picture from someone else. It was very cool! One person read off a site description and we tried to guess who it was. They called the name and whoevers site it was put a picture of themselves on the map in their town. They then read off the next description and so on until everyone had a new home. I was toward the end and very nervous because so many of the sites sounded great and I would love to go there. We were able to have some input about our desires last week when we interviewed with our APCD--Associate PC Director for Health. We werent promised anything but it felt like they wanted to match us as best as possible so that we will be happy there. Its hard to know what you really want though since we have been here such a short time. I said I probably wanted a larger village where I would have multiple organizations to work with, access to a market and larger town with grocery store so that I can cook lots, would like to be the first volunteer in the community, and wanted to live on my own with a private courtyard. I got almost all my wishes except for the housing situation and dont really know much about that yet. It sounds like I will be in a family compound but have my own house.

I dont think I am suppose to name my specific village for security reasons since this is a public forum. If you are interested in knowing, send me an email and I can tell you. Here is my village description excluding actual name:

Congratulations! You are going to the village of §§§§. Welcome to the region of Tenkodogo and the health district of Garango. You will be living in the home village of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and former Minister of Health--this is the same person. Expectatio nfor the volunteer is high, but we believe that you will meet this expectation and your public health background will help. You will be among the first health volunteers in this region along zith a PST mate in a nearby village! You also have a secondary educatio nPCV nearby. The city of Tenkodogo is easy accessible from your village where you will find such luxuries and a supermarche. The local language is Bissa but Moore is also well spoken.

I also found out that there about 6000 people and I am about 30km from Tenkodogo and probably about 6 km from the next volunteer who is training with me currently. Very excited about this! I have tons of questions of course but will just have to wait until I move there on Dec 26 to find out more! You should be able to find Tenkodogo on a map and probably even Garango. Tenkodogo is on the main road to Togo so many people will pass through when traveling between the two countries.

Drinking, Embassy, & More

Our schedule continues to be jam-packed including several really fun events. We had a field trip to "local drinking establishments" to see and taste the locally-made beverage of choice for many. Dolo is made from either red or white millet with a few other variations and takes a few days to ferment. Usually older women make it and run the "cabarets' where it is sold. When you first arrive, they give you a calabash or bowl made from a bird-house gourd to let everyone in your group taste. This is free but you are then expected to purchase a liter or more to enjoy during your time there. After the first taste, everyone gets their own calabash to drink from. Some described dolo's taste like hard cider while others felt it was more like vinegar. I didn't mind the taste but was a little disgusted by the large number of flies swarming our calabashes. This adventure was followed by a medical session about alcohol safety.

 

On Thursday we had a visit from the Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Burkina. We were told that he is basically the second in command. He wanted to meet the new volunteers and see what training was like. The embassy is currently being evaluated so the individual completing the audit from D.C. also visited along with an IT expert from the embassy. It was obvious that everyone was very interested in Peace Corps and supportive of our programs.

 

Friday morning we left early for Ouaga, the capital of Burkina Faso, to make it to a 9 am meeting at the U.S. embassy. The ambassador met with us and again reiterated the importance of Peace Corps in this country and said that we were the true ambassadors of the United States. Several other American employees at the embassy also spoke to us on a variety of topics including what to do if we decide to marry a Burkinabé. We also visited the Peace Corps which was much larger than expected. We spent the last two nights at the PC Transit House which is a place for volunteers to stay in the city when they need a break from their villages. We get four nights away from site a month and many volunteers come into Ouaga or another large city to use the internet, shop at the grocery store, eat out, and just relax. After staying at the transit house which has real toilets, hot water showers, huge shelves full of books, comfy couches, and wireless internet (though my computer is so old I can't access it), I can imagine what a treat it will be to stay here after a while in the bush.

 

Yesterday we visited SIAO, the famous arts and handicrafts festival held in Burkina every two years. There are exhibitors from all over West Africa and lots of cool things. We are living on very small stipends during training so it was hard to look at all of the beautiful fabrics, baskets, woodcarvings, etc. and not be able to buy anything. Since I am so new in country, its hard to know what I can get at other places and what was unique to the festival and also what is a good price to bargain towards. Fortunately the festival will be held again in two years, just a few months before I return to the U.S. so I will be able to go crazy shopping then.

 

We are headed back to Ouahigouya tonight and are done traveling for the rest of training. We are finding out our sites on Wednesday which I am very excited about since it will determine where I am living for the next two years. I feel like it's an early birthday present followed by a late birthday present of our first language exam on Saturday, the morning after I turn 24.

Proud To Be An American

The PC Staff were amazing yesterday and pulled some strings so we could stay at the training center to watch the election results. We watched the local station that started broadcasting a French station around midnight. Before that started they had a program called The American Night on where they discussed the electoral college process and showed maps of the US out of a textbook. It was pretty hilarious but we enjoyed a little coverage from home. They even interviewed a Burkinabe living in Wisconsin about the elections.

The French coverage was not very exciting because we had no fancy graphs like on CNN or any numbers really other than a few announcements when early states closed. I slept from about 2 until 4:30 when my mom texted me that McCain had conceded. I woke a few people up and we watched Obamas acceptance speech. They had it translated in French but could still hear him speaking if everyone was really quiet. I just feel so proud to be an American today even if I am living thousands of miles away. Its time for some real change! I am so excited to be serving my country during this period.

Election

One other thing....I am very excited for the election but am not sure if I will get much coverage so would love some texts or calls to let me know whats happening. I am sure I will hear by Wed morning what happened but I will be impatiently waiting for news!!

Long Update Finally

I finally have a chance to pull out my laptop when I have access to electricity to type up a longer post. I get very little free time when I’m in Ouahigouya so its hard to get to the internet café. Once I’m there, its very slow and has French keyboards so its hard to write much. Now I have the day completely free with no plans other than to visit the pool this afternoon at the fancy hotel in town. I haven’t gone yet but many of my fellow trainees went last weekend while I stayed in the village with my host family.

I’m doing great in Burkina and am slowly adjusting to a completely new way of life. I know this won’t last for long though since we have six more weeks of training and everything will be shook up again when I move to my permanent site where I’ll be living for two years. We’ve only been here less than 3 weeks but it feels like several months. The days are long and busy and it feels like they are trying to pack so much into training. We have between 2-6 hours of language class a day yet my French is not improving very quickly. The teaching method isn’t working so well for me but I figure I also need to take more initiative on my own part to study more. Its hard since I feel so tired by the time we’re done with classes and I’m usually sitting in the dark while 30 children stare at me. I try to practice French at home but many of the kids only speak Moore. Along with language classes we have had lots of medical sessions including ones about sexual assault and HIV/AIDS last week. They are very concerned about our health and safety over the next few years and we’ve gotten lots of advice on prevention.

Our technical training has focused on information about the Burkina Faso health care system and collaborating with Community Based Organizations (CBOs). All of the health volunteers will be assigned to a village health center (CSPS) that is run by an elected board of community members (COGES). Most CSPS’s have a head nurse, assistant nurse, and midwife who are assigned to work there along with a pharmacist, village midwife, and guard that come from the community. The reality among CSPS’s and COGES’s seem to vary greatly. We have visited the CSPS in the village I am currently living and met with several COGES members and the assistant nurse. I think we will start doing more hands-on activities and trainings over the next few weeks.

I have learned a little bit more about my host family but still can’t understand the relationships between mom, dads, and children. I’m not sure who sleeps where or any other simple concepts of core families. All of the children play together and I think eat in groups but I haven’t been able to spend enough time with them or have the language skills to understand the reality of the situation in my home. Everyone is great and I love the kids. They make me feel so welcome when I come home from training and love to sit in my courtyard and watch anything I do. My host dad speaks very little French and I speak only a bit of French and very little Moore yet we are able to communicate somehow. He always makes a point to great me in the morning and evenings and seems happy to have me staying at his home.

I can’t remember what I wrote about the house before so I’ll try to describe it a bit now. Its so unlike anywhere I have ever been so I find it difficult to describe but here is my best shot. We have a large walled compound with a long hallway that is open to the sky. There are at least 30 goats that live in this hallway. On either side of the hallway are doorways leading into small courtyards and rooms off of the courtyards. My courtyard and two rooms are at the end of the hallway. The walls are made out of mud or dung bricks and the courtyards have dirt floors. My rooms have cement floors but I’m not sure about the others. Its hard to tell what my roof is made of because they have black plastic nailed up on inside ceiling. In one corner, this is falling and it looks like the roof is made of small tree branches about an inch in diameter.

I would say there are about 8 of these courtyards and several rooms off each courtyard. Since there are walls about 5 feet high, its hard for me to really tell what is going on in the other courtyards other than peaking through the doorways. The rooms are pretty small but I don’t think people spend much time in them other than to store there few possessions and probably sleep during the cooler season. I think many people sleep outside now but I pretty much stay in my own courtyard once I’m home so am not sure how it works. My sister brings me meals and I eat in the courtyard. Off of my courtyard is my latrine and bathing area. Basically there is a wall in one corner with a latrine hole and a drain for me to take a bucket bath. Its dusk or already dark when I get home so I have gotten used to bathing under the stars. Its an amazing experience! I have seen more shooting starts in the last 3 weeks than I ever have in my life! I have slept inside every night at my host family just because its easier even though its very hot in my room and I sweat all night long! My bucket baths are great after a sweaty day of classes and biking and after a sweaty night! This is what the locals call “the mini-hot season” and it should be cooling down within the next few weeks. It is nice outside at night but at least in the high 90s in the middle of the day.

To get to my village from Ouahigouya I have to bike for 45-60 minutes on a long red dirt road. It is full of lots of ruts and in parts has loose gravel and dirt that is difficult to bike through. Whenever vehicles or motorcycles pass us on the road which is very frequently, we are covered in huge clouds of dust. The ride is not easy for me at this point but I keep telling myself it will get better as I continue to bike more. I don’t mind biking at 7 am because it is still fairly cool out but I’m usually a sweaty, red dust covered mess when I get to training. We spend at least one night a week in Ouahigouya in order to have time to get to the internet, market, or run other errands in the big city. We have class until 5:15 and need to leave immediately in order to have any chance of making it home before dark. The sun begins to set around 5:45 and its completely dark by 6:15 each evening. It rises at 6 am every morning and I usually get up around 5:45 without an alarm just as it is getting lighter out. I wake up early because I go to bed by around 9 pm each night and also because there are lots of donkeys, goats, sheep, cows, roosters, and other animals that make noise all night long and eventually its just not worth trying to sleep any longer. I never realized how loud donkeys are! I have woken up in the middle of the night several times thinking someone was dieing only to realize it was just a donkey “hee-hawing.”

I spent Wed-Sat on Demystification. This is the PC term for visiting a current volunteer and removing the mystery around PC life. I stayed with Becky, a volunteer in a small village about 40 km outside of Ouaga. The capital city is so close you can see a haze of lights at night from outside her courtyard but transport is unreliable so she feels very rural. I loved spending time with her and found her to be very inspiring. She has been in country about a year and is so well integrated into her community and its obvious they love having her there. She came in with no language but easily communicates in French and Moore. She has a theatre group that recently received a grant for a week-long training and supplies. They had their first performance since the training while we were there so we enjoyed seeing them perform a skit about HIV/AIDS followed by a discussion about prevention at another nearby village. I can’t imagine having two years of training and living with my host family but I can imagine living and working as Becky is. She has a private courtyard and two room house which she has decorated nicely. I’m excited to learn about my site in a week and a half!

There have been lots of questions about food, culture, etc but I think I need to wait to write more about these topics until I learn more myself. Please keep sending questions and I will do the best I can to address them when I get a chance. My processing of what I am seeing and learning is slower here so it takes me longer to communicate what I am experiencing. Thanks for your patience!

Today I received two birthday cards which is super exciting since its still two weeks away! Mail arrival seems to vary since I received a card today from my mom that was sent Oct 16 but know she sent one Oct 6 that I still haven’t gotten.

Sorry if this is a bit disjointed! I hope that its not too long and boring but I figured I’d try to get everything out that I could think of since I have the time to write now. Love and miss you all!